Well, worst of is really what this is about

I see that most have responded to tweaks. I'll go in another direction. I have owned and listened to many, many pieces of audio gear in my room in the last few decades. The one piece of gear that stands out above all the rest as shockingly disappointing was a Mark Levinson No. 38S preamp.

I was stunned by how poorly it performed in my room. My wife, who rarely comments about changes I make in my system said "What happened? This sounds worse than my car radio!" LOL!! The gent I sold it to loved it....go figure. I suppose it is all about system synergy.

Any product by a seller who quotes J. Edgar Hoover and Shirley Temple.

Jameswei, I never said you were wrong. In fact, I'm sure I would agree with you, just wondering who actually uses those discs.
As for me, first on my list are the Sequerra Met 7 speakers. They were rated Class B in Stereophile mainly, I guess, on Sam Tellig's review. Absolutely lifeless in my room. Luckily I got a super deal on them and passed that good deal on to the next buyer. Not sure what he thought of them.
Over rated? The Jolida JD-100 cdp is one on my list. Nothing standout at all about this player IMO.
Of course there are many who will disagree but this is my opinion.

OK I will mention one real product:
Bryston DAC (the first model)
So all the magazines raved about this new DAC from Bryston.
No one local had one to listen to, so I bought it.
Well i get it home and it sounds no better than my old Adcom DA700.
I had also splurged on new Magnepan 3.6 speakers, and Bryton BP-26 preamp and Bryston 4B-SST² amp.
So I was rather stymied that I spent a huge (for me) bundle of cash and all I get is the same level of sound I had.
I tried all sorts of different things too. It drove me crazy thinking this new 'Super recommended' $2,300 thing did not sound any better than my old (paid used $250 for it) Adcom DAC

Well, I had also ordered a Bryston phono box the BP 1.5 and that took a while longer to arrive as Bryston had to actually build it first. But when it did arrive.. I cried listening to the first LP I played. the music was a good step up from what I had on my old system, soundwise. So it WAS the damn DAC which was just nothing special. I was really relieved my other new purchases were worth the money.
I even took the Bryston DAC back and asked them to have it checked out to see what was wrong! (since BOTH TAS and Stereophile praised it to the skies... Nothing wrong, worked perfect. So I asked the dealer to take it back even though I had it for a month. He did.
So just because TAS and Stereophile think something is really great.. Do not just take their word for it.

Either that, or my old Adcom DA700 is a killer machine anomaly with the small mods I added!
(antistatic foam filling the internal volume of the case)

A little later on i bought a used VAC Standard preamp to use as a glorified tube buffer for mu digital stuff, to remove that last trace of HF glare from the music. Worked great and I now love both my digital (with Adcom DAC) and my analog from tow TTs Kuzma Stabi/stogi S with dynavector cart, and Rega P5 with Benz Glider.

Cary Audio 303/300 cdp- truly disappointing